How-to: Inserting timed comments/tags on the timeline

Timed comments and tags are a fundamental element of our Arpeggio Player and our "Full" Legacy Player. These appear as pins and dots (white for comments; black for tags) along the timeline of the Arpeggio and Legacy players, respectively. When the playhead (the line that moves as the video plays) reaches one of these pins/dots, then it will display a bubble containing the text for the comment or tag.

Arpeggio Player

Our Arpeggio player currently allows you to leave timed comments on a video.

How to I create a timed comment?

Creating a timed comment

Click the comment bubble in the top control bar.

Type your comment in the text box and confirm the time you'd like the comment to appear on the timeline.

Note: You may use basic HTML to add a link here. Use the <a> tag to do this. For example, if you'd like to make the comment, 'Do you feel that our new design page is being marketed well?', then you could link to the specific page by writing the comment as follows:

Do you feel that our new <a href="http://www.viddler.com">home page</a> is being marketed well?</a>

4. Lastly, click 'OK' to save the comment at that position along the timeline.

Legacy Player

Note: The following only pertains to the Full Player. Our Simple and Mini players cannot currently create nor display timed elements in the player.

Which should I use — a comment or a tag?

Comments are best for full sentences, links, and other text longer than one or two words. An example for a fitness video could be: 'Have a buddy spot you when lifting heavy weights.'

Tags are keywords used to help people find your videos. They can also act as chapter markers (e.g., 'Part 1', 'Part 2: The Rabbit Escapes', etc.) in a video. Tags should be kept to 1-5 words for the best viewer experience, and the best search engine results. Grouping multiple words in a single tag can be done by surrounding them in quotation marks ("").

How to I create a timed comment or tag?

Creating a timed comment

Pause your video. Then, click anywhere along the timeline to place the playhead at that position.

Hover your cursor over the playhead and you will see a plus (+) symbol. Click this and you'll have several options: Add comment; Add tag; Add video comment; Set thumbnail. Select 'Add comment'.

You will now have a small box to enter text within. Enter the comment you'd like to have appear at this position in the video. There's a limit of 1,000 characters per comment.

Note: You may use basic HTML to add a link here. Use the <a> tag to do this. For example, if you'd like to make the comment, 'Horns is my favorite place to eat.', then you could link to Horns' website by writing the comment as follows:

<a href="http://theblueskycafe.com">Blue Sky Cafe</a> is my favorite place to eat.</a>

4. Lastly, click 'OK' to save the comment at that position along the timeline.

Note: Steps 1-3 are the same for creating timed tags, video comments, and setting a thumbnail. However, we have provided all the steps for each below.

Creating a timed tag

Most of these actions are the same as creating a timed comment (above).

Pause your video. Then, click anywhere along the timeline to place the playhead at that position.

Hover your cursor over the playhead and you will see a plus (+) symbol. Click this and you'll have several options: Add comment; Add tag; Add video comment; Set thumbnail. Select 'Add tag'.

You will now have a small box to enter text within. Enter the tag(s) you'd like to have appear at this position in the video. Tags are space-separated. You may have multiple words in a comment by surrounding the words in quotation marks ("").

Click 'OK' to save the tag(s) at that position along the timeline.

Creating a video comment

Pause your video. Then, click anywhere along the timeline to place the playhead at that position.

Hover your cursor over the playhead and you will see a plus (+) symbol. Click this and you'll have several options: Add comment; Add tag; Add video comment; Set thumbnail. Select 'Add video comment'.

You will now see a small box appear with drop-down menus for selecting the camera and microphone sources. (If this if your first time using the video comment recorder, then Flash Player will likely ask you to Allow/Deny access to the camera and microphone. Please click 'Allow'.) Your default camera and microphone should be detected. If you'd like to choose difference sources for each, then click their respective drop-down menus.

Once you have the sources selected, you will see live video of yourself in a box below those drop-down menus. Hover your cursor over the live video to show the record ('Rec') button. Click the button to begin recording your video comment. We recommend keeping the video comment short (10–60 seconds).

To finish the recording, hover over the live video and click the 'Stop' button. You may now choose to record again (by clicking the 'Rec' button) or save by clicking the 'OK' button below. Click 'OK'. If you choose to re-record, then complete the recording and click 'Stop' followed by 'OK'.

Your video comment is now saved to the timeline. This is the only place the video comment will appear. It will not appear in your video library.

Comments

How do you add a video comment via an iPad? This is essential for us as we have 3000+ students accessing the videos via iPads. We can see the videos (as they're in HTML5) but no commenting facility appears on the video timeline.

Hey, Paul. Timed comments, tags, and video comments cannot currently be created nor viewed on mobile devices (using HTML5) at this time. We have an update to our player coming soon which will be able to offer this functionality on some devices — I don't know specifics at this time. We will share more details in the coming months.